'Avant-Garde, Compassionate' WCSU Professor Honored By Regents Board

DANBURY, CT — The Board of Regents for Higher Education has honored a Western Connecticut State University art professor for excellence in teaching.

Sabrina Marques was recognized with both the board's campus-based and system-wide award for teaching excellence. At WCSU, she teaches courses in undergraduate painting, is a graduate critic in the M.F.A. program, and is the director of the Kathwari Honors program.

Marques earned a B.A. in Visual Arts from Columbia University and an M.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art. Before teaching at WCSU, she taught art courses at UCONN, Whittier College and Connecticut College.

Her nomination letter applauded her teaching skills and support of students, describing her as "avant-garde, compassionate and ingenious … the mentor of all mentors, that her teaching style and way of looking at life aligned perfectly with the mission of our program, and that the professor already had so many ideas on a potential honors course."

Marques' current research involves a four-year cross-cultural project where she travels to Alagoas and the Amazon in Brazil, and studies the relationship indigenous tribes have with art. She is a part of a collaborative project with professors from other institutions to study protocols on art, positive emotion, neuroscience, and its effect on wellbeing.

Marques was one of 17 Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system faculty members to receive a 2021-22 award.

"CSCU faculty have gone above and beyond to serve our students over the past two years," CSCU President Terrence Cheng said. "In particular, the award recipients recognized by the BOR today have been exceptional educators, researchers and scholars. Our colleges and universities are better places to learn because of their work, and I congratulate each recipient on this well-deserved recognition."